The present invention relates to fishing reels having a removable spool with rear brake.
Such reels, described for example in the document CH-A-336 639, comprise a reel body which can be fitted on a fishing rod and an internal holding device for holding a spool support shaft in a fixed axial direction. The internal holding device further provides axial translation drive and rotational braking of the spool support shaft. The spool support shaft comprises an external portion projecting from the reel body and shaped so as to receive and retain a removable spool. A removable spool, comprising an axial bore, fits on to the external spool shaft portion and comprises a locking and unlocking device which can be operated by the user for locking the reel axially and freeing it with respect to the spool shaft when he wishes.
Removable spools of such known reels are generally formed by molding. The result is that the annular axial bore of the spool has a relief angle profile permitting removal from the mold and is generally fitted on a cylindrical shaft.
Furthermore, molding techniques lead to relatively substantial variations in the dimensions of the axial bore of the spool between the different series of molded spools.
The above considerations lead, in known reels, to providing a not inconsiderable radial free motion between the shaft and the spool. The same goes for the axial free motion which must be left between the shaft and the spool by the locking device.
The inventors have discovered, in known reels, the existence of random defects of winding of the line on the spool, during use of the reel. Surprisingly, the inventors then discovered that quasi suppression of the axial play and of the radial play of the spool with respect to the spool shaft using parts machined with small tolerances, very substantially reduces the random defects of winding of the line on the spool.
The invention uses this observation and proposes a new reel structure having means for reducing or quasi suppressing the free motion existing between a reel spool and its spool shaft.
Another object of the invention is to provide particularly simple and inexpensive means for suppressing this free motion, the means in particular suppressing simultaneously the axial play and the radial play.
According to another object, the means of the invention can be adapted with quite minor modifications to known reel structures.
Another advantage of the invention is to permit axial play take-up means to be adjustably fitted for accommodating the relatively wide variations of axial dimension of the molded reel portions.